$3.3m ticket may be in ceiling: NSW court

It's 16 years since Robert Clemett claims he bought a $3.3 million winning OZ Lotto ticket.

Mr Clemett now believes the winning ticket may be stored in the ceiling of a western Sydney Housing Commission unit he lived in over a decade ago, a court has heard.

Earlier this year he asked a Supreme Court judge to order NSW housing to conduct a search of the ceiling cavity at the Bonnyrigg unit, where he lived until about 2001.

This was refused by Justice Peter Garling, who ruled the court did not have the right to order searches of a private property, and who found Mr Clemett should approach the current unit occupier himself.

It was one of several orders sought by Mr Clemett that the judge refused, including that NSW Lotteries produce reports on the replacement of newsagent lottery terminals in 2000.

This was based on Mr Clemett's contention that the terminals might have been replaced because they were inaccurate.

Mr Clemett says he bought the Oz Lotto ticket in September 1997 at Greenfield Park Newsagency in Sydney's west but lost it in February 2000 when he moved into Housing Commission premises.

He is seeking either damages for a breach of the contract he says he entered into with NSW Lotteries by the submission of his ticket, or the sum of the prize money.

An independent referee who carried out a comparison of Mr Clemett's entry and the winning entry details as outlined by NSW Lotteries found they were "quite different" in many respects.

However, the court heard Mr Clemett wished to challenge the legitimacy and accuracy of the details provided by NSW Lotteries.

Justice Garling allowed the independent referee's report to be adopted by the court. But he rejected NSW Lotteries' request that Mr Clemett's case be summarily dismissed.

The matter returned to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, where Justice Lucy McCallum was told Mr Clemett was unable to attend due to his ill health.

In an email to the court, Mr Clemett said he was a pensioner on disability support, "struggling in his health and under extreme stress".

Justice McCallum accepted Mr Clemett was unfit to attend court and adjourned the matter for hearing on June 14.